The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1887-10-21
MANKATo FREE Press
FORBIDDEN HONEY.
SERMON BY REV. OR. TALMAoE
IN THE TABERNACLE.


Depicting aud Injurious Books OF the
Perlod-The Popular Taste for Pure
Literature IL Poisoned by the Scum of
the Publishing House.
BRooKLYN, Oct. 1a-"Seven hundred and
eighty one thousand three hundred and six
teen dollars and twenty-four cents have been
paid cash down in this church for religious
uses and Christian work during the nineteen
years of my ministry said the Rev. 7. De
Witt Talmage, ID. D., in answer TO the mis-
representations that have been going through
some Of the religious papers depreciating the
work of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. After
giving out the hymn;
Our God our help In ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Dr. Talmage preached a sermon, the subject
| of which was Forbidden Honey the text
being Samuel xiv, 43: st did but taste
| little honey with the end Of the rod that was
In my hand, and lol / must die.n DIR. Tai
mage said:
The honey bee Is most ingenious architect,
q Christopher Wren among insects, geome-
ter drawing hexagons and pentagons, free
booter robbing the fields of pollen and aroma,
| a wondrous creature Of God, whose biography,
written by Huber and Swammerdam, is an
enchantment for any lover Of nature. Virgil
celebrated the bee in his fable Of Aristeus,
and Moses, and Samuel and David, and Solo
| mon, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and St.
| John used the delicacies of bee manufacture
| as a Bible symbol A miracle Of formation is
the bee: five eyes, two tongues, the outer hav-
ing a sheath of protection, hair on all sides of
its tiny body to brush up the particles OF
flowers; its fight 50 straight that all the world
knows Of the bee line. The honeycomb is a
palace such as no ons but God could plan
and the honey bee construct; its cells
sometimes a dormitory, and some
times storehouse, and sometimes a
cemetery. These winged toilers first
make eight strips of wax, and by their anten-
nSe, which are to them hammer, and chisel,
and square end plumb line, fashion them for
USE Two and two, these workers shape the
wall II an accident happen they put up
buttresses OF extra beams to remedy the dam
age When about the year 1776 an insect,
before unknown, in the night time attacked
the beehives all oyer Europe, and the men
who owned them were in vain trying to plan
something to keep out the invader that was
the terror of the beehives of the continent, it
was found that everywhere the bees had ar
ranged for their own protection, and built
uOu6yCOL1DS cSpcClhl wall Oh
wax, with port holes through which the bees
might go to and fro but not large enough to
admit the winged combatant, called the
Sphinx Atropos.
Do you know that the swarming of the bees
is divinely directed The mother bee starts
for a new home, and because of this the other
bees of the hive get into an excitement which
raises the heat of the hive some four degrees,
and they must die unless they leave their
heated apartments, and they follow the
mother bee and alight on the branch Of a
tree, and cling to each other and hold on
until committee of two or three have ex-
plored the region and found the hollow of a
tree or rock not far OFF from a stream Of
water, and they here set up a new colony,
and ply their aromatic industries, and give
themselves to the manufacture of the saccha-
rine edible But who can tell the chemistry
Of that mixture Of sweetness, part of it the
very life of the bee and part of it the life of
the fields?
Plenty Of this luscious product was hang
ing in the woods Of Beth-aven during the
time Of Saul and Jonathan. Their army was
in pursuit of an enemy that by Gods COM
mand must be exterminated. The soldiery
were positively forbidden to stop to eat any
thing until the work was done. If they disc
beyed they were accused. Coming through
the woods they found a place where the bees
had been busy, a great honey mandatory
Honey gathered in the hollow of the trees
until it had overlooked upon the ground in
great profusion of sweetness. All the army
obeyed orders and touched it not save Jona-
than, and he not knowing the military order
about abstinence, dipped the end of stick he
had in his hand into the candied liquid, and
as, yellow and brown, and tempting, it glowed
on the end Of the stick he put it to his mouth
and ate the honey Judgment fell upon him,
and but for special Intervention he would
have been slain. In my text Jonathan an
nounces his awful mistake: II did but taste
little honey with the end Of the rod that was
in my hand, and, 10, I must die" Alas, what
multitudes of people in all ages have been
damaged by forbidden honey, by which
mean temptation, delicious and attractive,
but damaging and destructive.
Literature fascinating but beautiful comes
In this category. Where one good, honest,
healthful book is read now there are one
hundred made up Of rhetorical trash con-
sumed with avidity. When the boy in the
cars comes through with a pile of publica-
tons look over the titles and notice that nine
out of every ten of the books are depicting
to Chicago or New Orleans notice that OBJ
jectionable books dominate. Taste for pure
literature is poisoned by this scum of the pub
fishing house. Every book in which sin tri-
umphs over virtue, or in which glamour is
thrown over dissipation, or which leaves you
at its last line with less respect for the mar
riage institution and less adherence
for the paramour, is a depression
of your own moral character. The
book bindery may be attractive, and
the plot dramatic and startling, and the style
of writing sweet as the honey that Jonathan
dipped up with his rod, but your best inter
ests forbid it, your moral safety forbids it,
| your God forbids it, and one taste of it may
lead to such bad results that you may
have to say at the close Of the expert
ment or at the close of a misimproved
lifetime: 81 did but taste little honey with
the rod that was in my hand, and, 10, must
diel"
Corrupt literature is doing more today for
the disruption OF domestic life than any other
cause. Elopements, marital intrigues, sly
correspondence, fictitious names given at
postoffice windows, clandestine meetings in
parks, and at ferry gates, and in hotel par
lors, and conjugal perjuries, are among the
damnable results. When a woman, young
or old, gets her head thoroughly stuffed
with the modern novel she is in ap-
palling peril But some one win say: 1.-THE
heroes are so adroitly knavish, and the per-
sons so bewitchingly untrue, and the turn
Of the story so exquisite, and all the charac-
tiers so enrapturing, I cannot quit them"
My brother, my sister, you can find styles of
literature just as charming that will elevate
and purify and ennoble, and Christianize
| gwI,t Ia Ntary ,aloa
all the honey. There is a wealth of good
books coming forth from our publishing
houses that leaves no excuse for the choice of
that which is debauching to body, mind and
soul. Go to some intelligent man or woman
and ask for a list Of books that win be
strengthening to your mental and moral
sspditon. Life Is % short and your time for
Improvement 50 abbreviated that you can
not afford to fill up with husks and cinders
and debris, In the interstices Of business
that young man is reading that which win
prepare him to be a merchant prince, and
that young woman is filling her mind with an
intelligence that will yet either make her the
| chief attaction of good mans home or give
her an independence Of character that viii
| qualify her to build her own home and main
tain it in a happiness that requires no aug
mentation from any Of our rougher sex. That
young man or young woman can by the right
literary and moral Improvement Of the spare
ten minutes here or there in every day, rise
head and shoulders in prosperity, and charac-
ter and influence above the loungers who
read nothing, or read that which bedwarfs.
See all the forests Of good American litera-
ture dripping with honey. Why pick up the
honeycombs that have in them the fiery bees
which will sting you with an eternal poison
while you taste itG One book may for you or
me decide everything for this world or the
next 1t was turning point with me when
| in Wynkoop's bookstore Syracuse, one